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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26470927">Master Shifu and the Unceasing Onslaught of Grandchildren</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holdingoutforavillain/pseuds/Holdingoutforavillain'>Holdingoutforavillain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kung Fu Panda (Movies), Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adoption, Grandparents &amp; Grandchildren, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Fic, Multi, Parenthood, Past Child Abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:07:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,808</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26470927</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holdingoutforavillain/pseuds/Holdingoutforavillain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Master Shifu is one of the most glorious Kung Fu Masters in all of China, having vanquished powerful foes and mastered heavenly arts. Now, in a time of peace and prosperity, he must face the most powerful foe of all: his children's children.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Crane/Mei Ling (Kung Fu Panda), Mantis/Monkey (Kung Fu Panda), Mei Mei/Viper (Kung Fu Panda), Po/Tigress (Kung Fu Panda)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Master Shifu and the Unceasing Onslaught of Grandchildren</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Otherwise known as 5 times Shifu gets a new grandchild and 1 time he teaches them Kung Fu.<br/>Please note that section 4 (featuring Lan, daughter of Monkey and Mantis) covers some sensitive topics.</p><p>I'm a bit brain dead right now, so I can't make any promises to how good this story is, but I enjoyed writing it, so I hope you enjoy reading it! I'm going through a Kung Fu Panda phase right now, and this idea wouldn't leave me. Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1.</p><p>Ping Jun arrived at Bao Gu when he was a mere 5 days old.</p><p>The kind hearted pig who oversaw the orphanage had sent a scroll to Shifu, begging him to take the child the same way he had adopted Tigress, all those years ago.</p><p>Shifu’s first thought had been a resounding, ‘I am too old for this nonsense’.</p><p>He had been sitting on the veranda of the Jade Palace, basking in the unseasonably warm weather when the scroll came. He’d set it in his lap, and waited. Tigress and Po got noodles every Sunday, so he knew they would be coming. Sure enough, he heard the measured, yet heavy footsteps of his daughter, and the Earth-shaking footfalls of her husband within the hour.</p><p>When the palace doors slid open, Shifu thrusted the scroll towards Tigress. Po gasped a gasp unbefitting the Dragon Warrior, but Tigress bent down and plucked the scroll out of Shifu’s hand with grace and dignity.</p><p>“What is this?” she asked. “Is this about those Wolf Bandits?”</p><p>Shifu made a noise, indicating the contrary. “You said that you found a tiger village in the East, right?”</p><p>“‘Village’ is a little generous, but yes. Why?” Tigress asked. </p><p>“There’s a tiger pup at Bao Gu. They want him gone.”</p><p>Tigress’ eyes bulged. She grabbed Po's arm like a vice, and pulled him down the stairs. “Let’s go.”</p><p>“We’ll, uh, have to stop by my dads’ and let them know we aren’t staying for noodles tonight-” Po said as Tigress dragged him down the stairs, into the city. “Buh-bye, Master Shifu.”</p><p>Shifu shook his head, and settled back into his meditation, as their silhouettes faded into the dusk. </p><p>A tiny part of his mind asked if this wasn’t going to be the last he heard of the cub.</p><p>-</p><p>The tiny part of his mind was right.</p><p>He should’ve known that between Tigress’ childhood in the orphanage, and Po’s bleeding heart, that they were going to take the boy home with them.</p><p>“Children are messy, loud, and undisciplined. What are you thinking?” he’d hissed when the couple arrived at the Palace the next day, arms full of tiny clothing and diapers, with a tiny cub in between them.</p><p>“Who said they’re thinking?” Crane had offered from behind Shifu, ignoring Tigress’ hiss. Viper hit his leg with her tail, and cooed at the baby as Crane jumped up and down in pain. </p><p>“But, Master Shifu!” Po had said. “We couldn’t just leave him with strangers. And wook at his widdle face!”</p><p>As if to accentuate this point, Po held the cub out towards Shifu.</p><p>Baby talk aside, Po had a valid point. Ping Jun was 5 pounds of claws, teeth, and fluff, whose purrs could stop the baddest bandit in their tracks.</p><p>He was an angel for Tigress, who would tuck him in her tunic and let him snooze the day away, and for Po, who would tie him to his chest and show him the dual arts of cooking and Kung Fu.</p><p>He even adored Li Shan and Mr. Ping, who would feed him bowls of noodles and rub his belly.</p><p>The rest of the Furious Five were not as lucky. Monkey was covered in scratch marks and bald patches, Mantis had a tiny crack in his exoskeleton which he claimed would take ‘at least three molts to smooth out’, Crane lost three months worth of calligraphy when the cub found his way into Crane’s room, and Viper had her tail in a splint.</p><p>Shifu rarely interacted with the boy, considering they lived in the same palace. He mostly spoke with his parents, who always seemed to have the cub in their arms.</p><p>It had been nearly a month since the cub had arrived, and Shifu was sitting at the foot of Oogway’s statue, deep in meditation. He heard someone approach, but couldn’t put his finger on whose footsteps he was hearing.</p><p>‘Inner peace. Inner peace. Inner-’</p><p>It wasn’t until the cub plopped down beside him that Shifu opened his eyes. He gave the cooing cub an awkward smile, and craned his neck to search for his parents. </p><p>They were nowhere to be found. Monkey had probably volunteered to baby sit and then sicced the child on Shifu to see what his reaction would be.</p><p>… Oogway really was 99% of Monkey’s impulse control. Mantis was just an enabler.</p><p>“I am meditating, pup. Go find someone else to watch you.”</p><p>The cub crawled closer, burrowing under Shifu’s arm until he was seated on the Red Panda’s lap.</p><p>“Pup, go find someone else,” Shifu said firmly.</p><p>The cub purred happily, and curled up in a ball.</p><p>“Pup, this is-”</p><p>“Fufu.”</p><p>Shifu froze. He looked down.</p><p>“Gwampa Fufu,” the cub giggled.</p><p>Shifu opened his mouth, then closed it again. He took a deep breath, then tentatively put a hand on the boy’s head.</p><p>The cub sighed, and closed his eyes. He was snoring happily within seconds.</p><p>Shifu felt a smile tug at the edges of his lips and he raised his other hand in a meditative posture, letting his eyes flutter closed.</p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p> </p><p>2.</p><p>Guanting arrived at the Jade Palace when he was a mere month old.</p><p>Shifu had thrown open the palace doors to greet Crane and Mei Ling, back from a week-long stint tutoring new recruits at the Lee Da Academy, and promptly felt his heart drop when he spotted the chick waddling in between them.</p><p>“What is that?” Shifu asked, crossing his arms and straightening his back.</p><p>“Oh, y’know, we just thought Jun could use a playmate,” Crane said, dryly. His eyes widened. “Master!” he added hastily, bowing his head.</p><p>Mei Ling rolled her eyes, giving Crane a light smack on the wing. She inclined her head towards Shifu. “Master, this chick was found wandering a few miles from the academy. The headmaster confirmed he lost his parents in a home invasion two weeks ago. There was an orphanage nearby, but there were no birds there. We thought we’d…” she trailed off, looking at Crane.</p><p>“Keep him?” he finished. </p><p>The pair looked at Shifu, eyes wide with anticipation.</p><p>Shifu looked back and forth, then down at the chick. Shifu couldn’t say it had the sheer adorableness Jun did, but there was something just as endearing about the chick. He had beige feathers so thick and soft it almost looked like fur, an orange beak double the length of its little head, gangly legs that lifted him almost to Shifu’s height, and wings the size of a yen held close to his side.</p><p>“Children are messy, loud, and undisciplined,” Shifu said. “What’s his name?”</p><p>“Guanting.”</p><p>“Guanting,” Shifu repeated, looking down at the chick. “You will be good.”</p><p>-</p><p>He was not good.</p><p>His claws were comparable to his mothers in the amount of scratches they left on the floor. Priceless jade, rare wood, it didn’t matter. All fell victim to the chicken scratch of the Jade Palace’s newest resident.</p><p>The mealworms were also far from a high point. Crane and Mei Ling sealed them in a clay jar in the back of the pantry, but they didn’t stay out of sight, nor mind, for long. Between Po absentmindedly throwing a handful of them in the soup he was making for the palace residents, Mantis eating them straight out of the jar like crispy pork rinds, and Viper’s refusal to be in the same room as them due to their apparent resemblance to snakes, Shifu was getting very tired of seeing those tiny bugs.</p><p>But the worst, by far the worst, was the feathers. Within a week, they covered the floor, like sharp, itchy dust bunnies. Shifu had been forced to wear… shoes indoors. It made him incredibly upset, to trek dirt and filth inside such a sacred place, but avoiding sharp pains in his paws was worth the mental turmoil.</p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p>Shifu sat beside the Heavenly Peach Tree of Wisdom, feeling the crisp wind in his fur, and on his delightfully bare paws.</p><p>‘Inner peace. Inner-’</p><p>A quiet squawk interrupted his mantra. Shifu looked over his shoulder, spotting the chick.</p><p>His wings had grown quickly, and he was now beginning to fly, so his parents would let him wander near the cliffs, so long as someone was close.</p><p>Shifu supposed he counted as ‘someone’. </p><p>The chick waddled closer, coming to a stop at Shifu’s side. He bent his legs and sat down, ruffling his feathers. He looked over at Shifu, eyes wide.</p><p>Shifu looked over at the chick, then back at the sky ahead of him. The boy’s eyes didn’t stray from his face.</p><p>“Can I help you, colt?” Shifu asked.</p><p>The chick giggled. It was a high and clear sound, like a bell ringing. “Shwifu silly.”</p><p>“Am I?” Shifu asked.</p><p>“Yeah,” the chick said. “Wha’ you look a'?”</p><p>“The sky,” Shifu said. “To witness nature is to witness balance and peace in its purest form.”</p><p>“Sky is pwetty,” the chick said. “I watch sky with Shwifu?”</p><p>Shifu felt a smile tug at his lips, and he placed a paw on the chick’s shoulder.</p><p>“Yes, you may.”</p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p> </p><p>3.</p><p>Fang arrived at the Jade Palace when he was 1 month old.</p><p>This time, Shifu had advanced knowledge of his arrival. Bless Viper and her aversion to sending Shifu to an early grave.</p><p>“Mei Mei and I are having a baby,” she told Shifu while the pair were alone in the kitchen, drinking tea. </p><p>Years of training keep Shifu from spitting the tea currently in his mouth all over the table.</p><p>“This is caffeinated,” he offered as a response.</p><p>Viper chuckled. “Not that kind of having a baby. One of my friends gave birth recently, and she's letting us adopt him.”</p><p>“She doesn’t want the snakelet?” Shifu asked. “It is a snakelet, right?”</p><p>“No and yes,” Viper said. She took a sip of tea. “She has her hands full already. She was going to leave him with the orphanage, but she remembered that they don’t allow interspecies couples to adopt…”</p><p>“So she asked you,” Shifu finished. “That is very kind. When will you bring him here?” </p><p>“Mei Mei is picking him up now. She’ll be here by tomorrow,” Viper said. “I’m so excited, but I’m so... terrified.”</p><p>“You’re a Kung Fu master, Viper.”</p><p>“I know, I know. It's just that I can’t Kung Fu a child into behaving,” Viper said.</p><p>“I’ve found that you can,” Shifu said.</p><p>Viper’s eyes widened.</p><p>“That was my attempt at humor, Master Viper. Don’t be afraid,” Shifu said, reaching out to put a comforting hand on her tail. “If someone like me can raise Tigress, your child will be the next Oogway.”</p><p>Viper smiled brightly, then she bowed. “Thank you, Master Shifu.” She placed a kiss on his cheek, and slithered out of the room.</p><p>“He’s not allowed to envenomate the geese!” Shifu called after her retreating figure.</p><p>-</p><p>He did not envenomate the geese. </p><p>If only everyone else in the Jade Palace was as lucky. </p><p>Mei Mei resembled a jade statue with how green tinged her face was. Luckily she was large enough that the snakelet’s venom wasn’t fatal, but she still looked a mess.</p><p>Viper and Mei Mei worked tirelessly to try and train the snakelet to have control over his venom, but progress went about as slowly as Po and Tigress’ progress potty training Jun (that is to say, very slowly).</p><p>Prior to the snakelet’s arrival, Shifu and Viper would share a cup of tea once a week, just before dawn on Sunday. She hadn’t shown up in two months.</p><p>Viper barely had a second to spare, Shifu knew that. </p><p>Still, Shifu was not above admitting that it hurt. Red Pandas are social creatures, he told himself. They were not meant to sit at a kitchen table before the sun rose, drinking a cup of tea by themselves. </p><p>‘Inner peace. Inner-’</p><p>Shifu sighed. He was not made for this. He grabbed his tea and stood, turning to leave, when he spotted the snakelet in the doorway.</p><p>He was barely the size of Shifu’s arm, with big eyes and coloring so much like his mother's. </p><p>“Hello, snakelet. Do your parents know you’re here?”</p><p>“Tea,” the snakelet said. “I hassssss tea?”</p><p>Shifu raised an eyebrow. “You want… tea?”</p><p>“Tea!” the snakelet chirped happily. </p><p>“Tea?” Shifu asked again. </p><p>“Tea!” the snakelet chirped happily.</p><p>Shifu was puzzled, but he bent down, scooping the snakelet into his arms before setting him on the table. </p><p>Shifu poured a small glass of tea, then blew on it, until it was no longer steaming. He sat down in his chair and placed the smaller cup in front of the snakelet. </p><p>The snakelet took a sip. “Inna peace.”</p><p>Shifu felt a smile tug at his lips. </p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p> </p><p>4.</p><p>Lan hadn’t even hatched when she arrived at the Jade Palace.</p><p>Monkey and Mantis had been in a relationship longer than any members of the Five, but Shifu had never thought that the pair wanted to have children. </p><p>“Congratulations,” he had said, dryly. Jun and Guanting and Fang were napping in their playpen, while the rest of the Five had gathered around Monkey and Mantis talking wildly.</p><p>It wasn’t until Shifu got closer that he saw the looks on Monkey and Mantis’ faces, and the large, goopy gash in the casing.</p><p>“Come, both of you. Join me in your quarters,” Shifu said firmly.</p><p>Po and the rest of the Five sobered up, clearing the couple a path as they looked on, bowing their heads sadly.</p><p>Once in their quarters, Shifu sat cross legged before Monkey, who was rubbing his thumb over the egg casing. </p><p>Mantis draped himself over his husband’s shoulder, eyes downcast.</p><p>“What happened?” Shifu asked quietly. </p><p>“We saw it on the way to Gongmen City. There wasn’t a mother nearby, so we left it. We decided we’d pick it up on our way home, but we didn’t want to damage it,” Monkey said.</p><p>“When we came back, it was like that,” Mantis finished. “Dead.”</p><p>Shifu shook his head. Pain was not a stranger to his students, but the loss of a child, even one you never laid your eyes on, was something much harder to reckon with.</p><p>“If there is anything you need, either of you…”</p><p>“Thank you, Master,” the two chorused, and Shifu stood, leaving the couple to their grief.</p><p>The next morning, Shifu instructed Po to prepare Mantis’ favorite soup, and he sent Viper to the store for some almond cookies for Monkey, but when the couple joined him in the kitchen, just after dawn, Shifu’s world turned upside down… again.</p><p>Perched on the edge of Monkey’s finger, barely the size of a yen, was an orchid mantis, with an ivory exoskeleton, pink markings, and giant eyes. It rubbed its legs together, and gazed around the room with what Shifu swore was childlike wonder.</p><p>“Good morning, Master Shifu,” Monkey said, smiling brightly. “Meet Lan.”</p><p>“Orchid,” Shifu repeated when his head stopped spinning. “It survived?”</p><p>“She’s a fighter,” Mantis grinned, crawling down Monkey’s arm to gather the insect in his. “Our fighter.” He rubbed her head, and she chirped.</p><p>“Our fighter,” Shifu said. He leaned down, meeting the hatchling’s eyes. “You will not scare us like that again, little one.”</p><p>-</p><p>She didn’t. </p><p>She didn’t require baby talk, or diaper changing, or liquid foods. She learned to speak within a week, and never got lost, or worse, trapped underfoot. She spent the majority of her time riding on Mantis’ back, or nestled into Monkey’s fur.</p><p>However, as quickly as her aging started, it stopped again, leaving a capable, floppy child who could verbalize each and every thought that went through her mind. </p><p>“What are you wearing? You look tired. I’m hungry. Why do we wear shoes? Daddy, papa, I’m hungry. Is Uncle Po cooking? What’s for breakfast? What’s for lunch? What’s for dinner-” </p><p>Monkey and Mantis learned not to respond, but Shifu had attempted to answer her first question, which led to her asking hundreds more of him.</p><p>‘Inner peace.’ </p><p>Shifu sat in his meditative posture, in the training hall.</p><p>‘Inner-’ </p><p>“What are you doing?” the little bug asked. “Are you sleeping?”</p><p>Shifu looked down. She was only the size of his pinky. “I am meditating.”</p><p>“Why?” </p><p>“To clear my mind.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Because I like it.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>Shifu sighed, then patted the space next to him. “Sit down, little bug.”</p><p>She did as she was told, folding her legs into a resting posture.</p><p>“When we meditate, all the troubles that plague our minds are left behind. There is only peace and quiet left,” Shifu said.</p><p>The hatching was silent for so long that Shifu began to suspect that she’d fallen asleep, when a tiny voice broke through his thoughts.</p><p>“Is it dark?” she asked. </p><p>“Hm?” Shifu asked.</p><p>“When everything but the peace and quiet leaves. Is it dark?” she asked.</p><p>“I suppose.”</p><p>“Then I don’t wanna to do it.”</p><p>“You are afraid of the dark?” Shifu asked.</p><p>“No!” The hatchling crossed her arms. “I am <em> not </em>afraid.”</p><p>“Then why don’t you want to do it?” Shifu asked.</p><p>“I am <em> not </em>afraid,” she repeated, looking down. “I just don’t like the dark.”</p><p>“Why not?”</p><p>She went silent again.</p><p>“When I was a little boy, I was afraid of the dark,” Shifu said. “My father was a Kung Fu Master, and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. Every hour of every day we would train. After a few days, I would get sloppy, and slow. So he would send me to the shed all night, to meditate. If he caught me sleeping, he’d throw water on me, to keep me cold, so I couldn’t fall asleep. Even now, I prefer the light. Meditation is dark, and it brings back those memories, but it is also my light. It is how I forget.”</p><p>“Before Daddy and Papa found me, it was dark. I was all alone,” the hatchling said.</p><p>“You aren’t alone now,” Shifu said. “I’m here.”</p><p>The hatchling reached out toward him with the tip of her mandible. Shifu grabbed it in between his fingers.</p><p>He took a deep breath. </p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p>The hatchling took a deep breath, mimicking him.</p><p>“Inner peace.”</p><p>Shifu felt a smile tugging at his lips, and he let his eyes close, and his thoughts drift.</p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p> </p><p>5.</p><p>Ping Jie arrived at the Jade Palace when he was 7 years old.</p><p>Jun attended school with the children from the Bao Gu orphanage, much to Shifu’s chagrin. </p><p>“Your husband has never seen an orphan he didn’t want to keep. You’ll adopt the every child in the place,” he had said.</p><p>“You’re being ridiculous, Master,” Tigress had replied.</p><p>Within the week, the pair had brought home Jie, a gangly little panda.</p><p>Shifu’s ‘I told you so’ had been particularly satisfying.</p><p>Jie fit into the family immediately, cooking with Po, cuddling with Tigress, and playing with his brother, Fang, Guanting, and Lan.</p><p>The cub (and he was a cub, no matter how much he insisted he was a grown panda) was a massive Kung Fu fan, and he sat in the training hall on his days off school, watching Po and the Five train. He had all their action figures.</p><p>Shifu was thankful. Jun, Fang, Guanting, and Lan had grown up so immersed in Kung Fu that they failed to recognize it as the art it was. Thanks to Jie, the children’s passion had been reinvigorated, and they spent hours each day out in the courtyard, ‘practicing’ their moves.</p><p>There was just one problem. The boy was terrified of Shifu. </p><p>He knew Shifu’s signature moves, and would read about his adventures until his scrolls were falling apart, and he bowed every time they passed each other in the halls, but whenever Shifu turned his attention to the boy, he wouldn’t be able to speak.</p><p>After a few weeks of skittering around each other, Shifu decided to seek the boy out.</p><p>He rose just before dawn, poured his tea, and drank it on his way to the training hall. It was already a warm morning, thanks to the unforgiving summer sun, and Shifu had worn his lightest robe. He slipped inside the training hall without making a sound, and simply watched.</p><p>Jie snuck out to the training hall every morning, practicing his punches and kicks on the training dummy his father had once lost a match to.</p><p>Shifu shook his head, and he cleared his throat. </p><p>The cub whirled around mid punch, and the dummy smacked him as he tried to bow. “Ow- Master Shifu!”</p><p>“Good morning, Jie.” Shifu gestured towards the spot on the floor next to where he stood. “Come, sit down.”</p><p>The cub nodded, eyes wide. He bounded over, and plopped down on the floor. </p><p>Shifu lowered himself down gracefully. “You know, your father practiced on that dummy when he first arrived here.”</p><p>“Papa Po practiced with that?” Jie asked, his eyes wide. “But… it's so....”</p><p>“Basic?” Shifu offered.</p><p>The cub nodded. </p><p>“Everyone starts somewhere,” Shifu said. “Your mother practiced on it, too.”</p><p>“Mama Tigress?” The cub’s jaw dropped. </p><p>“I practiced on that dummy,” Shifu said.</p><p>“Woah.”</p><p>Shifu chuckled. “Yes. Woah.”</p><p>“I bet you showed it who's boss, grandpa Shifu!” </p><p>Shifu froze. He felt a smile tugging on his lips.</p><p>“I did.”</p><p>“Can you teach me?” Jie asked.</p><p>“To show it who's boss?” Shifu asked.</p><p>“Yea! And, y’know, to do Kung Fu.”</p><p>“It would be my honor.”</p><p>The cub cheered. “When do we start?”</p><p>“We already have.” Shifu looked out the window, at the rapidly rising sun. “Close your eyes. Clear your mind.”</p><p>“What move is this for?” the cub asked, closing his eyes.</p><p>“Meditation,” Shifu said. “Clear your mind, Jie, and repeat after me.”</p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p>“Inner peace.”</p><p>‘Inner peace.’</p><p> </p><p>+1</p><p>“The key to the horse stance is to lower your center of gravity. This connects you to the Earth below your feet. This Earth is where your power comes from,” Shifu said, standing in front of his newest class.</p><p>Jie and Jun deepened their couches, reaching the proper stance. Shifu nodded at both of them. Guanting’s legs trembled, but he held his head high. </p><p>Shifu stepped forward, and pushed the crane’s chest back. “Don’t lean forward. This will affect your balance.”</p><p>“Yes, Grandpa- Master Shifu.” </p><p>Fang straightened his back, and Shifu gave him a nod of approval. Lan had both sets of her legs spread properly, and Shifu gave her a nod.</p><p>Shifu and the children had settled in the courtyard, while the Five and their partners watched eagerly from the steps of the palace.</p><p>“Now we will practice the strike,” Shifu said. “Where do we aim our strikes?”</p><p>Five hands (well, two paws, a wing, a tail, and a mandible) shot up.</p><p>Shifu felt a smile tug at his lips, and this time, he let it light up his face.</p><p> </p><p>fin.</p><p> </p>
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